The Art of Living has been working on rejuvenating rivers and canals in the Latur district of Maharashtra’s Marathwada region since 2013. Latur district, which has 10 talukas and 1000 villages has been facing drought like conditions for the last several years. Crops have failed, animals have died, farmers have committed suicide; the list of miseries is long.
Amidst stories of heart-wrenching drought, there is also a glimmer of hope.
The Art of Living has worked in 50 villages of Latur. Some of these villages are Renapur, Bhada, Darji Boragaon, Bamani and Katpur. These villages have effectively addressed their water crisis through The Art of Living’s Jal Jagruti Abhiyaan. Volunteers along with villagers have been successful in making villages self-sufficient with their water requirements.
Through this program, The Art of Living volunteers along with villagers have revived 4.5 km stretch of the Rena River and 20 km stretch of the Tawarja River. The Gharni River is also recharged to a great extent.
Mahadev Gomare, coordinator of the project, says, “We de-silted the rivers and the canals; cleared off the debris, mud, rocks that filled the old reservoirs. In some cases, we built walls on the canals to increase the holding capacity and improve percolation. Whenever it rained, the water remained in the canals, recharging the water table. Today, with our work, acres of barren land in the region have become fertile.”
He further shares that the 50 villages they have worked on have enough water for the villagers as well as the cattle. The canals and the bore wells are recharged in these villages and they do not have to depend on any external source of water.
In the last two months, The Art of Living has started work in Latur city as well where the drought has cast its worst spell. Driving awareness programs on rainwater harvesting and having implemented rain water harvesting in more than 2000 houses, The Art of Living is hopeful that the problem can be tackled.
Mahadev says, “The only need of the hour is harvesting. The city gets about 600 mm of rainfall, which is close to 3 TMC of water, whereas the need of the Latur city region, with a population of 5 lacs is only 0.5-0.75 TMC. There is no way the water crisis cannot be solved if rainwater is harvested and kitchen and bathroom outlet water is recycled.”
This article was published on April 18, 2016.